Better Streets for Enfield's five main 'asks': No 1

The campaign group Better Streets for Enfield is this week publishing its five main "asks", one per day. Ask No 1 is "A low traffic neighbourhood in every ward".

Low traffic neighbourhoods are whole residential areas where point road closures (eg using bollards) stop cars driving straight through the area, but allow people to walk or cycle through in safety. Experience with schemes implemented elsewhere (eg in Walthamstow) has shown many benefits:

Children can play and neighbours socialise

Any age can walk or cycle through the area

Driving very short journeys is less convenient

Traffic within the area reduces by 50% or more, and overall by 15% or more

Air pollution, noise and danger drop dramatically.

Better Streets for Enfield want to see low traffic neighbourhoods benefitting every ward in the borough, especially the most polluted and/or deprived areas. They recognise that Enfield Council's Fox Lane Quieter Neighbourhood scheme is a serious attempt to reduce through traffic, but are asking them to go further and trial ‘point closures’ in the Fox Lane area, to remove through traffic and create a truly quiet, low traffic neighbourhood. If successful this could be a model for other areas across the borough.

How point closures (in green) could remove through traffic from the Fox Lane area

The traffic and speed counts carried out in the Fox Lane area in late 2018 show how badly residents suffer from rat running along their streets - for instance, over 40,000 vehicles a week along Fox Lane, 29,000 along Meadway, 25,000 along Amberley Road, 23,000 along the Mall, not to mention widespread disregard for speed limits and some horrendous top speeds (see this article for summary data for each street in the area).

Better Streets' proposals for a Fox Lane low traffic neighbourhood (see the map) would remove most of this traffic. Residents would enjoy peace and quiet, while people would be free to walk or cycle across the area unimpeded by the point closures.

A much higher proportion of people living in Enfield use the car to go to work than people across London - and Better Streets say it's no coincidence that we also have high rates of health problems caused by a lack of exercise, like childhood obesity and diabetes. So we need to make walking and cycling much more safe and convenient for all ages, helping people exercise just by going from A to B – without adding to congestion or air pollution. This is especially important for routes to school.

The transformation of the A105 and A1010 into healthy boulevards is a good start and has triggered a switch to using bikes to get around, but Better Streets say this should be just the beginning.

To open up active travel for everyone, Better Streets are asking for three main ingredients:

Safe space to walk and cycle on busy roads so that anyone aged 8 to 80 can travel safely by foot or bike. We want to see the current high-quality improvements on major routes expanding across the borough.

Low traffic neighbourhoods – whole areas without through traffic that are safe for walking/cycling, not just one ‘quiet’ route per area.

Safe crossings over main roads, linking up 1 and 2. This creates a borough-wide network of direct routes for walking and cycling that any age or ability can use.

Better Streets for Enfield's third "Ask" is "Pedestrian-friendly high streets to boost local business".

Studies have shown that too much traffic puts people off spending time on a high street and that cyclists and pedestrians spend more money in local retailers than drivers do.

Better Streets say that the A105 and Hertford Road schemes have made town centres along the routes greener and more pleasant, with rain gardens, seating and more pavement space, but there are many more shopping areas that are still traffic-dominated, eg south of the North Circular.

Wherever people go to spend money, Better Streets want them to feel safe and relaxed, so they are asking for:

A new report by Centre for London, Green Light: Next Generation Road User Charging for a Healthier, More Liveable, London, calls for London to move towards an innovative new road user charging scheme which charges drivers on a per-mile basis. Costs would vary by vehicle emissions, local levels of congestion and pollution and availability of public transport alternatives – and prices would be set before the journey begins. Read more

A new traffic filter in Warwick Road, which local activists see as the first step in a wider effort to implement a Low Traffic Neighbourhood in the west of Bowes Ward, has had a bumpier ride than envisaged Read more

Waltham Forest Council has released a short video outlining the achievements of the Enjoy Waltham Forest project since it began five years ago, when the borough was one of three to win bids for Mini-Holland funding from the Mayor of London and Transport for London. Read more